Humans wouldn't be able to get by without salt

Published 12:01 am, Monday, August 1, 2011

Photo Caption: These microscopic salt crystals were collected from the air over California's Pacific Coast. Photograph by Forrest M. Mims III.

Photo Caption: These microscopic salt crystals were collected from the air over California's Pacific Coast. Photograph by Forrest M. Mims III.

Humans wouldn't be able to get by without salt

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People can survive without gold, silver and platinum. But life as we know it would be impossible without table salt.

There is irony in this, because salt is composed of sodium and chlorine, elements that are decidedly unfriendly in their pure state. Drop a thimble-size chunk of metallic sodium into water, and it will explode. Inhaling chlorine gas can have fatal results.

The union of sodium and chlorine forms the molecule sodium chloride (NaCl), the table salt that is essential to our survival. Sodium in salt is key to the transmission of nerve signals throughout the body, including those that cause our hearts to pump blood. Chlorine in salt assists with digestion of some nutrients and helps repel infections. Much more about the role of salt in our bodies can be found at www.salthealth.org.

Salt has played a prominent role in history. Sal, Latin for salt, is the root for salarium, the pay received by Roman soldiers and the origin of our word salary. Jesus told his followers that they were the salt of the earth.

The Salt Institute claims that salt has more than 14,000 uses. Centuries ago the enormous success of the cod fisheries off the coast of Newfoundland was made possible by the availability of salt to preserve the catch, most of which was shipped to Europe. Salt mining is a major industry in Ohio, where the product is used to melt ice from roads after winter snow storms. Salt is used in water softeners, where it displaces the calcium and magnesium that can form deposits inside pipes, tubs and showers.

Salt needs to be replaced when perspiration brings it to the surface of the skin. Years ago, I led a group of church teenagers on a 1,000-mile bicycle trip from Albuquerque to Padre Island. A physician advised passing out salt tablets after particularly hot segments of the journey.

Salt is among the world's most common resources and is far more abundant than precious metals. But there have been times when salt was as valuable as gold. This is because salt is mainly found in the oceans or in massive underground deposits. This means special methods are required to extract it.

Salt is removed from water by placing ocean water or brine into pools that are allowed to evaporate. The salt is left behind as formations of crystals. Underground salt is mined by heavy equipment or by injecting water into salt deposits and evaporating the brine to recover the dissolved salt.

More about salt's role in everyday life, medicine, industry and food is at www.saltinstitute.org, which provided some of the facts given here.